The first time I met Julie I immediately noticed her bright smile, friendly eyes, and easygoing manner. Within several hours I noticed the most important quality to me in a wife – a huge heart for God and for service to others. Fast forward several months to the beginning of summer 2014. Sometimes things happen […]
At 37, my heart was really content with singleness. Life was full of friendship, a rewarding job, adventure, challenge, and excitement. Looking back, God really protected my heart from longing for a life I didn’t have – a married life with a husband and children. In the back of my mind, though, I always wondered […]
I grew up thinking that the words “I love you” were a statement of my endearment for someone. So whenever someone would say, “I love you” to me, I would sweetly say, “thank you” with a wink. And whenever I shared my endearment for another person using those special three words, I expected nothing more […]
I feel like every couple should have a life mission or a theme to their relationship – something that defines their purpose as a couple. We found ours in Jeff’s 1st and 2nd Samuel class at Grace University. They had just finished reading through 1 Samuel 14. The Philistines were camped on one side of […]
Katie is a distant friend of mine from high school, and after we ran into each other this last summer in our hometown of Rapid City, SD, I invited her and her husband, Jeff, to write for our blog. These two have an awesome story to share about their love for each other and love […]
Ann’s crazy about organizing her stuff. She can literally spend hours doing nothing but moving things around. Everything she owns has a place…everything! If I set something down and leave the room, it’s usually gone when I get back. In fact, some of our biggest fights have been over me not putting things back in […]
The morning sky is overcast and grey, but despite the drop in temperature, I still feel sweaty in my bright orange jumpsuit and helmet. I anxiously review the sequence of the dive flow in my head – “exit, get stable, find Aaron…” – when the gust from the door opening shatters my train of thought. […]
Humility…I sure wish I had more of it. Whether you are trying to climb huge rock mountains or trying to overcome something in your marriage humility is a quality that you must posses. Pride kills many mountaineers and destroys a lot of love stories. My pride has already done quite a bit of damage […]
There are a lot of things God did not make me. He did not design me to be a doctor or an engineer, nor did He design me to cut down big trees or run for president. It’s easy to list the things I’m not. It’s really hard to define who I am with a […]
Ann and I are back in Pennsylvania for the next month. My parents sold the house and needed some help moving everything out to Illinois to be closer to their grand kids. So we are busy packing boxes and preparing for our annual festival summer tour (we are still taking applicants for the tour, by […]
Last week I started lap swimming again. I’m not sure if it was my snug jeans or my busied mind that urged me to go. I’ve always sort of viewed swimming laps as a cleansing process; after a few minutes my body falls into a steady rhythm, I forget that I’m exercising, and I get […]
The ancient Jewish Talmud says, “A wife is the joy of a man’s heart.” You wouldn’t have to read it to know this, just get married and go on an adventure with your wife. Being married to Ann has made all the beautiful things in life so much more amazing. In high school I took […]
A friend of mine told me the other day, “Joe, being married is the hardest part of my life and the best part of my life, all at the same time.” I could not agree more. I mean, I love my wife and I love being married to her. All of my best memories are […]
Have you ever wondered if you married the “right” person? I have, and more than once. Society has taught us that the idea of a successful relationship or marriage is a combination of the “right” people, and if a relationship breaks up or a marriage ends in divorce, it’s most likely because the two people […]
“Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” – Ephesians 5:33 I am learning that the difference between a good marriage and a great marriage is how well a couple accepts and obeys the Biblical commandment of love and respect. If I am ever […]
